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Corruption: It's What's For Dinner

Saturday, Nov. 03, 2007 10:59 AM

It's no secret that I hold California Senator Dianne Feinstein in less than high regard, as she has proven key in enabling some of the more egregious insults to democracy by the Bush Administration (among others, 'fixing' the USA PATRIOT Act, then acting all surprised when the 'little-known' clause allowed the summary dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys; confirming Alberto Gonzales after his song-and-dance about 'hypotheticals'; confirming Michael Hayden as NSA Director after a show of concern over his lack of knowledge about the Fourth Amendment).

Now comes word that she and Sen. Chuck Schumer are 'considering' (i.e., caving into to the whiny demands of the spoiled baby in the Oval Office) confirming Judge Michael Mukasey as Attorney General.

Apparently, she's happy with his non-answer about our non-existant torture of prisoners, and doesn't even consider the larger impact of this program which isn't actually taking place on America's reputation.

If we - both our elected leaders and as a people - cannot stand firm against torture, but instead choose to edge across a simple and clear moral line with the weakest of excuses, we have ceded any right to be considered the leaders of the free world.

May God have Mercy on our souls.

We'd like to offer a complimentary side of stupidity to round out your dining experience.

As if the blame-Barbara-Eden comment by FOX's Steve Doocy wasn't idiotic enough, Sean Hannity had to jump into the shallow end of the pool from the high board.

According to Hannity, Halloween is a liberal plot that teaches our children to beg for handouts.

But apparently, the free-for-all gimme parade that has come to symbolize the true meaning of Christmas is okay.

Nancy Nord, head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, lashed out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call to increase funding the CPSC, decrying it as unnecessary and adding 'more lawyers' instead of focusing on the job of testing products.

It turns out that Nord and her predecessor may have been enjoying the high life courtesy of the very companies the CPSC is supposed to regulate.

ABC News is reporting that Dan Levin, an acting assistant attorney general at the time, wrote a memo in 2004 that 'torture is abhorrent,' though he did not specifically comment on previous activities of the Bush Administration - a footnote added at the insistence of some guy named Alberto Gonzales.

Levin reached this conclusion by submitting himself to being waterboarded. And while he told White House officials he knew he would not die, he found the experience terrifying and that it simulated drowning. (Which, big surprise, is the whole point.)

Levin was dismissed shortly after Gonzales became Attorney General.

I guess it wouldn't do to have someone on the team who thinks you're committing a crime. They might have to actually prosecute you or something.

There are suspicions that the Army's shiny new counterinsurgency manual, supposedly written by one shiny general named David Petraeus, is nothing of the sort, but rather a cobbled-together mess plagiarized from other sources by a committee.

So far, the Hero of Anbar Province is turning out to have not told Congress about a seriously-flawed dam that would turn our glowing success into a mud puddle, and now preparing a field manual - used to instruct our soldiers! - by haphazardly slapping stuff together because it 'sounds good.'

And Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf has declared a State of Emergency, suspending the constitution and replacing the chief justice before a critical ruling on Musharraf's future.

Musharraf has criticized a number of judges as 'working at cross-purposes with the executive' and 'weaking the country's resolve on terrorism.'

Hmm. Activist judges and talk of not having the will to fight the good fight ... sound familiar?